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toasteroven

shutting everything down over 2 inches of snow just tells me people are way too reliant on cars where you are.  Part of the reason things typically don't shut down around here is because over half the people in the city don't drive.

Feb 25, 15 3:07 pm  · 
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gruen

snook - isn't it awesome when owners want to ignore the foundation problems? 

usually they want to put something nice on top of some cr*p. 

Feb 25, 15 3:50 pm  · 
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I once looked at an old building here that had piles of stone rubble topped with wood wedges for interior piers.

Feb 25, 15 6:42 pm  · 
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mightyaa

Lol Miles... historic.  Rubble foundations aren't uncommon.  That's what they did with all those broken bricks and rocks they dug up. 

I've seen some of the penny pinching historic developers use all sorts of garbage as 'filler' in the foundation forms too; bottles, rocks, wood blocks, cans, etc.  The concrete is then just poured around it all. 

All of that is still better than wood sleepers on dirt to make your plank floor.

Feb 25, 15 7:14 pm  · 
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Another time a specialist came to restore a mortar-less rubble foundation in-place. He used a battering ram to smash the settling rocks back into the wall. Probably good for another couple hundred years.

Feb 25, 15 7:54 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Seemed like I'd get more feedback if I started a thread, but I'm redrawing all sorts of 'on the market' homes in my area to see if I can make them work for me and mine before we make an offer.  The biggest problem, of all things, seems to be garage.  I feel like a detached garage defeats the purpose.  I keep imagining having to get something out of my car at 2 am, in the rain, and the cold.  But really, what is your preference?  Attached or unattached?

Feb 25, 15 10:17 pm  · 
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Carrera

Back on another thread there was all this hand-wringing over a 12” CMU basement wall on a house addition and fret over anchor bolts to hold that wild-cat down. At one of my first jobs the seasoned CA told me a story about a bridge he worked on as an iron worker during WWII….said about half way through they ran out of resteel because of the war….they just looked at each other, shrug their shoulders and kept going…and here it is…. ...

Feb 25, 15 10:29 pm  · 
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Carrera

Sarah - Detached, mine is with covered portico, Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t jam a garage on a house that’s what hyphens are for. What are you doing going out to the garage at 2AM? Your spouse will think you’re making secret phone calls, mine does.

Feb 25, 15 10:40 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Carrera, your spouse makes secret phone calls?!  Perhaps it's only Jake from State Farm.

Feb 25, 15 11:02 pm  · 
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Carrera

No, she would think I was, and she has good reasons that I won't go into;)

Feb 25, 15 11:07 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

I have a detached 2 car garage and  it is filled with junk....besides that I have  not shoveled the long driveway to the garage since the start of the winter.  So mrs. snooker doesn't have to worry about secret phone calls here, cause I can't get to the door.

Feb 26, 15 10:34 am  · 
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shellarchitect

One of my garage door springs broke in dec. I'm too cheap to pay someone to fix it but unwilling to work outside when it's under 20 deg. Irrelevant I know.... Attached is the way to go so long as it isn't all you see from the street

Feb 26, 15 10:25 pm  · 
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SneakyPete

Damn it.

 

He's dead, Jim.

 

RIP, Spock.

Feb 27, 15 2:24 pm  · 
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gruen
One of my springs just broke too. Detached 2car. It's full of motorcycles, as all garages should be.
Feb 27, 15 2:26 pm  · 
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I lost an operator for a 9' x 9' door that tracks parallel to an 8/12 pitch roof. It has two 5" diameter coil torsion springs that are tensioned with a 48" steel bar while standing on top of a 10' scaffold.

Feb 27, 15 2:36 pm  · 
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citizen

...And this time, sadly, Spock won't be reappearing...

Feb 27, 15 3:08 pm  · 
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Either everyone is sad about Spock dying or everyone is so tired from yesterday's llama drama that they just don't have energy to post today.

This llama video set to Yackety Sax wore me completely out - laughing so hard my stomach ached.

Feb 27, 15 3:22 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

That Video took me back to my youth.  My uncle cowboy Lloyd was hauling a hereford bull to the Stock Yard to be sold in the back of a large Stock Truck.  He came to a stop light and well the bull being bored decided to act out and smashed the back of the trailer out and leaped to the ground and took off in the middle of traffic.  A cop show up  and starts haggling with my uncle Lloyd.  He  says to the cop,  "Just Let Him Be.... and put your pistol back in your holster cause if you shot him all it is going to do is piss him off."  He convinced the police officer to take me to the local feed store to  get a bag of  rolled oats  and a big bucket.  Sure enough the guy comes back and my uncle pours the oats in a bucket and proceeds to walk the Bull to the stock yard , with the police escort in front of him and back.  The bull was plenty willing to follow a trail of rolled oats with out any incident.  Next day he was on the front page of the Local New Paper as the Story of the day.  I think he kind of enjoyed the whole ordeal since the bull was not harmed.


 

Feb 27, 15 3:56 pm  · 
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shellarchitect

Wtf is going on with that door? Do you have a picture of it?

Feb 27, 15 7:32 pm  · 
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DO NOT WATCH THAT VIDEO AFTER DRINKING MARGARITAS. 

Feb 27, 15 8:22 pm  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

Donna, any idea what function is served by the big square open area with all the benches facing in? I wonder if that is where the Sun City seniors play lawn bowling or bocce ball. 

Feb 28, 15 9:57 am  · 
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tint, are you going by Tinty now?!? Yeah I have to assume bocce ball or something. Sun CIty is crazy and the thought of all those golf carts trying to corral the llamas cracks me up. That cowboy at the end is awesome!

Miles did you barf margaritas on your keyboard?! I'm sorry!

Feb 28, 15 10:58 am  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

yes, it's me, tintt, with an extra t. It stands for there is no there there. I added an extra there there. 

Feb 28, 15 11:01 am  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

There is no shade there on them there bocce courts. Tsk tsk. It really made me want to look away.  

Feb 28, 15 11:12 am  · 
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tintt, if you added an extra there there it wouldn't it be tinttt?

I prefer tint as you can read it multiple ways.

Feb 28, 15 11:46 am  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

(t)here is no (t)here (t)here. 3 t's. It is not there is no there there there, at least I'm not there yet, maybe in time. Sounds more sympathetic, as in there, there, there, like you'd say to soothe someone. 

Feb 28, 15 11:51 am  · 
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Today's bonus reminder from the Internet: Always pick colors from actual samples when possible and not photo reproductions. #thedress
Feb 28, 15 12:48 pm  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

Saw Whiplash today, I'm surprised this hasn't come up already, all incoming architecture students should see this film, actually, above any stupid architecture text, this movie should be required viewing; nothing less is expected.

Mar 1, 15 8:36 pm  · 
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rationalist

Sarah, I favor the carport over an enclosed garage of any sort. It's probably just the southwesterner in me—enclosed garages seem like putting lipstick on a pig to me. 

Like others around here I like to keep my pseudonym around for times just like this, when I'm having a really hard time and don't want to be identified. This friday a project which has not been going well came to a head, and I was told that it's time to face the music tomorrow. I also found out that my office has lost several people over this client's demands already (unbeknownst to me, before I got involved with the project). My client's not happy with the work, though everyone around me says it's fantastic, and we're already getting referrals based on what people have seen of it. I could almost deal with this better if I'd put out bad work or messed up in some way, then I'd know that I deserved to be treated this way. Instead the client has bucked my judgement every step of the way, and is now unhappy with the decisions they've made. It's like everyone above me has recognized there was no chance of success based on the time, money, and the known temperament of the client, but I've got to keep going anyways. I'm just so completely floored that my office would put me in that position, and let me persist in this way for almost a year with no hope of change.

This project has been a major mind-fuck for me, made me doubt myself deeply, and the realization that there was never anything I could do, and that my office knew that based on their history with this client, has left me feeling completely defeated. I feel like what I need is to walk away for a significant period of time, but I'm also on track to pay off grad school this summer, and I know that I would regret doing anything that compromised that. I'd hoped to get some distance from it over the weekend, but idea of going into the office tomorrow morning like everything's ok is still pretty ridiculous to me right now. Has anyone here ever had a project/client like that? How do you keep yourself going at the end? And is this just the treatment I accept by being a part of a larger office, that they'll never stand up and say their people are more important than their (chance at) profit?

Mar 1, 15 9:39 pm  · 
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Carrera

Had someone quite senior to me tell me once when I encountered my first impossible client - "just look at it this way, he's a client, not your wife, not your boss, not even a coworker, when he bears down on you how long does it last? An hour? Fifteen minutes? When he's done you're done and you can get into you car and leave".

Had another friend tell me that clients are like girlfriends, it pays to have a lot of them, when one gets under your skin call a different one and go to the movies (cleaned up the actual story). Sounds to me that because of your situation you're only allowed to have one girlfriend... but with a large firm reassignments are the norm, happens all the time. If this was my firm & my client I would change out PM's all the time on this guy to keep him on his heals... you've got to get reassigned, but if they won't  you may have to on your own.

Good luck, sounds painful.

Mar 1, 15 10:33 pm  · 
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rationalist, I'm going to trot out the "keep calm and carry on" suggestion, and here is why: you're worked up about it right now. Your office may thrown you under the bus with this client just to keep the invoices being paid; or they might have been sincerely hoping you would be the magic bullet that could make this client happy. You don't know, yet.

Go with the flow for another week or two or a month. It can't hurt, in the meantime, to make sure you have copies for your portfolio of anything you would want in case you *do* end up moving on. But something may come out in the next few weeks that will make you feel more supported by your employers, who may have just made a bad decision here. 

As Carerra said, this job is not a spouse or child. If you truly need to you can leave, at any moment. Keep your eye on those paid-off student loans, stay even-keeled and calm, and see how things might shift in coming weeks.

Hang in there! And also maybe notify your friends that you might be sending them angry ranting texts over the next week whenever you need to blow off steam...

Mar 1, 15 10:51 pm  · 
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A bad client is one thing. A bad firm is another thing entirely. If they don't sacrifice you then get the hell out as fast as you can. 

Mar 1, 15 11:12 pm  · 
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rationalist

Thanks guys. I'm nearing the end of the project, but it's getting to the point where the client is blowing things out of proportion—as in, he calls up my boss (actually, he calls up my boss's boss's boss, which made for a super great first meeting with someone who has a lot of influence around here), then I get called into the boss's office, and I explain how things happen and the boss understands, but then as soon as we think we're done with this, it happens again. The way the client goes about it makes me a wee bit crazy, because one minute everything is seemingly fine, the next minute people are acting like the sky is falling, and frankly I don't know what the fuck has changed to cause it. 

So I think the way I'm going to handle this is, just assume that everyone in the room tomorrow knows I'm in the right, don't bother trying to justify myself to anyone, and look at it like what are they going to do to support me on this one, because that's what's lacking here.

ETA: exactly Miles, that is exactly my worry here. Learning how many people had already quit because of this client before they signed this contract painted the whole thing in a different light for me. 

Mar 1, 15 11:16 pm  · 
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Carrera

Rational, silence is key tomorrow, don't over explain, everyone knows what's going on. Whenever I'd get painted in a corner, I wouldn't refuse to speak but I didn't feed it ether... just give them that "I'm out of ideas" look and listen... amazing things come from silence.

Mar 1, 15 11:54 pm  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

I'm in agreement with Donna, fancy that. That this client hasn't fired your firm, doesn't reflect poorly on you, it does say a lot about the client, and even more about your firm. Personally, I would've fired the client already, and not put one more employee through the bullshit. No matter where that client goes, they're not likely to change their behavior. Your boss clearly has no sack. 

Do your presentation, maybe say, here's what you told us, and this is how we addressed that...After that, throw a cymbal at the client's head, maybe that'll fix them. - sorry, still have Whiplash on the brain.

Mar 2, 15 12:03 am  · 
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Carrera said in many fewer words what I was also trying to say: be quiet, absorb what others say, and see how it goes. Like you said: assume everyone else knows the dynamic perfectly. Be graceful and know you are in the right, as they all know already.

Mar 2, 15 7:24 am  · 
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vado retro

you need an attached garage for the yukon and the suburban. AND you need a smaller detached garage for that weekend droptop porsche. oh and you need a porte cochhere to unload all the trader joe and costco bags.

Mar 2, 15 10:41 am  · 
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toasteroven

rationalist - ah - the immature control-freak... yeah... these guys you really have to treat like a cranky pre-schooler.  keep showing them the same things over and over - repeat their words back to them... sometimes you just have to be quiet and let them throw a temper-tantrum... going to your boss is like "I'm going to tell mommy/daddy!"  I think what's important is knowing that your boss and your boss's boss has your back.  if your higher-ups aren't deferring back to you, then you're screwed.

Mar 2, 15 11:08 am  · 
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Carrera

The problem is that this suffices as the American Dream……it does however have that Frank Gehry swag to the roof…real estate ad says “Nice split level home….”, failed to mention the attached garage.

Mar 2, 15 11:56 am  · 
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toasteroven

anyone else catch john oliver's bit on infrastructure? 

Mar 2, 15 11:58 am  · 
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rationalist

Hey Carrera, if I could afford that in my area, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Do I think it's capital A Architecture? Hell no. But I have had to accept that I will never be able to afford real architecture unless I do it myself, so if the bones of the house are acceptable and it's in the right location and price-point I'm in. 

Mar 2, 15 12:09 pm  · 
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Carrera

Rational, the best part of the ad was its price - $695,000 (sure it's a typo)...you are right in some respects...these things are principally wood boxes, imagine if each of us bought one and transformed them…could be a movement – problem is its only worth/feasible at its lot cost, about $35,000. and I’ve tried to grab some but “Pam & Dave” always beat me to the punch at near asking.

Mar 2, 15 12:26 pm  · 
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rationalist

My husband and I are trying to find a multi-family place to buy and renovate, and we're getting pretty discouraged. I even caved and looked at SFRs yesterday thinking "if we could just get into SOMETHING, we could always add a unit" (that's legal here), but what I learned was primarily that our original plan really is the better one. But yeah, people want the kind of money for absolute dumps (and I'm talking every surface needing to be ripped out and replaced, full kitchen reconfigurations, rebuild failing decks or sagging floors, etc, not just some paint) that they would get for properties that are already liveable. We toured a duplex that was asking $485k for a property that I'm pretty sure any inspector would condemn, earning rents circa 1995, that was being touted as "a great little income property!" It was just depressing.

Mar 2, 15 12:35 pm  · 
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Carrera

Rational, that’s the problem….there are also “house sharks” around here and all they do is buy-paint-rent….my point is that “paint” is acceptable to “Pam & Dave” and until that changes (which is never) it’s an impossible formula. The best strategy is to stop being so fussy..…just run the numbers and throw an offer….eventually somebody will bite….may take 3 moves to get “settled”.

Mar 2, 15 12:53 pm  · 
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curtkram

i bet you could get that for less than 100k carerra

your listing for 700k

http://www.danberry.com/property/36298804/6414-wedgewood-dr-sylvania-oh-43560-3345

zillow says it's a foreclosure listed 2/18 for 95k

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6414-Wedgewood-Dr-Sylvania-OH-43560/34753798_zpid/

i bet one of our house flippers could make a bit of a profit off this one (not if they put $35k into it though).  it's not in that bad of shape for us proletariat.

Mar 2, 15 12:53 pm  · 
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Carrera

Curt, not into “Pam & Dave’s”, never been about “Money” to me, more about “Change”. Zeroing in on a 1954 ranch on a lake that’s a wreck…doing the “Magic” then thinking of going on houzz with it and selling the “Magic” to “Erika & Leonard”….for fun.

Mar 2, 15 1:18 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Rational,  I had a partner call me out for on a project one time in front of the whole office,  regarding the color of a paint I chose for a Refuse Transfer Station.   He had just returned from the field and was screaming mad at me cause it had been painted, "Pretty Pink." on the inside.  To my defense I had the color selection board just under my desk, so I pulled it out and ask him if  the color  on the Board looked, "Pretty Pink."  Then I remarked,   " I bet the  Ladies will love dumping off there trash at this Refuse Transfer Station. "  Low and behold  someone had mixed up the wrong colors, and the project even as a utilitarian project won a design award.  The basis of the design was developed around an airport hanger,  because the site was adjacent to a small local airport.

You can  if you choose give them the Frank Ghery  salute of peace, or play the country western song "Take this Job and shove it", and play it over the intercom.

Mar 2, 15 1:24 pm  · 
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toast, re: Oliver, the thing I really dislike about Stewart / Oliver is that making comedy out of disaster belittles it. None of this shit is funny when you get right down to it. And sure they nail it, but the net result is zero: entertainment.

Stewart broke the mold a couple of times, especially with 9/11 responders who were dying of cancer. He shamed congress into passing a $5b health bill for them (after nearly 10 years!), only to discover some months later that the legislation excluded cancer coverage.

Mar 2, 15 1:39 pm  · 
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curtkram

miles, if they don't make it funny nobody listens.

who are pam and dave?  and who are erika and leonard?  are they looking for new places to settle down?  if they don't have much to spend, like most people in america, it's likely they'll be getting a shitty split level instead of a fun redesigned diamond in the rough that's on a lake.

by the way, i would like a lake house.  if you're not doing anything in the next few days, it would be ok if you grabbed me one.  thanks.

Mar 2, 15 1:46 pm  · 
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Carrera

Curt, P&D and E&L are opposite mindsets, not necessarily money.

Mar 2, 15 2:06 pm  · 
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